{"id":257164,"date":"2026-04-08T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257164\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:52:13","slug":"men-convicted-in-2021-oakland-killing-of-kevin-nishita-sentenced-to-lengthy-prison-terms-kion-central-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257164\/","title":{"rendered":"Men convicted in 2021 Oakland killing of Kevin Nishita sentenced to lengthy prison terms \u2013 KION Central Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tim Fang<\/p>\n

A judge in Alameda County on Tuesday sentenced three men convicted in the 2021 killing of Bay Area police sergeant and security guard Kevin Nishita to decades in prison.<\/p>\n

Laron Gilbert, who pleaded no contest to first-degree murder with a gang enhancement, was sentenced to 30 years to life. Co-defendants Shadihia Mitchell and Hershel Hale received 25-year sentences after pleading no contest to robbery.<\/p>\n

\"suspects.jpgKevin Nishita murder suspects (L-R) Laron Gilbert, Hershel Hale and Shadihia Mitchell<\/p>\n

Oakland Police Department<\/p>\n

All three men accepted plea deals in February<\/a>, ahead of a scheduled trial.<\/p>\n

Nishita was shot on Nov. 24, 2021<\/a>, while working as a security guard for a television news crew in downtown Oakland and died from his injuries several days later. Authorities said the three men tried to steal camera equipment and Nishita stepped in to stop them.<\/p>\n

In her victim\u2019s impact statement, Nishita\u2019s wife, Virginia, recalled the phone call they got that morning, asking him to work for \u201cjust a few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for me, saying \u2018OK\u2019 has haunted me,\u201d said Virginia Nishita. \u00a0\u201cI wish I could go back to that day and say, \u2018no, it\u2019s your day off. \u00a0Let\u2019s prepare our Thanksgiving meal. \u00a0Let\u2019s continue what we\u2019re doing. \u00a0Don\u2019t go to work.\u2019 \u00a0I wish I could go back to that day\u2026and say, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hale and Mitchell were arrested in 2022. Gilbert was arrested in early 2024 after being found by U.S Marshals near Kansas City, Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case dragged on for years, and the family became enraged when former District Attorney Pamela Price attempted to downgrade the charges against the three men. \u00a0As a result, Virginia became heavily involved with the successful effort to recall Price from office. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, for the first couple years, I was fighting for justice to be here in these courtrooms, with the prior administration. And I wasn\u2019t able to grieve,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cNow it\u2019s time for healing. It\u2019s time, not to forget Kevin Nishita, but it\u2019s time to learn to live without him.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"kevin-nishita.jpgKevin Nishita<\/p>\n

Colma Police Department<\/p>\n

After retiring from a career in law enforcement, Nishita worked as a guard for various TV news crews in the Bay Area, including KPIX.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nishita had worked for several police agencies, including the San Jose Police Department, Hayward Police Department and Colma Police Department, where he was promoted to sergeant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tim Fang A judge in Alameda County on Tuesday sentenced three men convicted in the 2021 killing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-257164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}